Diversion Management

AT A GLANCE

Diversions are an expensive, chronic, and disruptive element of flight operations, costing US carriers at least $300 million annually for domestic flights alone.* With the PASSUR Diversion Management solution, carriers decrease the number of diversions they experience and optimize ones that are unavoidable, improving profitability, passenger care, and environmental metrics considerably.

A diversion is not a single, discrete event but rather a set of cascading actions that cause severe disruptions to airline schedules, major costs, and significant passenger frustration and ill will.

Diversion costs can range from $15,000 for a narrow-body domestic flight to over $100,000 for a wide-body international flight. **

* Derived from industry benchmark cost ranges for narrow-body domestic diversions only; based on DOT ASQP annual reported diversions from top 10 US carriers, US to US diversions only.
** Jenkins and Cotton, George Washington Aviation Institute study, 2002.

What’s New

Regional Diversion Management (RDM)

Addresses the problem of highly disruptive large diversion events when a small set of airports get overwhelmed with diversions, while other airports have unused capacity. The result is extended delays, cancellations, and disrupted schedule recovery.

Airlines: need to know where everyone is diverting (not just their own flights) and diversion airport “capability status” (gates, fuel, deicing fluid, hardstands)

Airports, CBP, and Ground Handlers: need to know how many diversions are headed to them, what type of aircraft, which airlines, and whether crews are likely to time-out

PASSUR RDM addresses these challenges by creating the first-ever platform that ensures real-time information exchange and coordination between airports, airlines, and other key stakeholders during large scale diversion events, by providing:

WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE

PASSUR’s Diversion Management solution is part of an integrated suite that reduces costs and constraints gate-to-gate, powered by the largest commercial traffic management surveillance network in the world. It provides the data granularity, completeness, and precision needed to create predictive, real-time, post-operational visibility into diversions.

KEY METRICS IMPROVED

Prevent diversions

Optimize diversions (when executed early or prioritized in the stack)

WHAT THE AIRLINE WILL DO DIFFERENTLY

Process diversions earlier, as appropriate, to prevent unnecessary additional fuel burn/time in the air holding

Manage diversions in both terminal and en-route environments

Identify and manage diversion prevention/optimization opportunities centrally for the entire airline system

INDUSTRY USE

This solution is used to manage holdings and diversions for 25% of the flights in the NAS (and increasing).

SNAPSHOT CASE STUDIES

One airline that has deployed the Diversion Management solution system-wide reported an 11% reduction in diversions in the first year of the program – 108% higher than its original goal. This meant approximately 10,000 passengers who arrived at their intended destination instead of being disrupted through diversion to an alternate airport.

Another airline has reported saving at least one diversion a week using this PASSUR solution.